Twitterpated
by Pyrrhus
Summary: Dawn's not sure what's worse - having a crush on The Boy Who Lived or being hit by a Bludger.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own the rights to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Harry Potter series. They belong respectively to Joss Whedon & Mutant Enemy and JK Rowling.  
**Note:** Please forgive me if this is a bit silly and fluffy. It was written after 2am. Also, do not fear. The next chapter of TDB is on its way. Promise.

* * *

Dawn glared at her new friend, envying the redhead in a way she hadn't since she was fighting with Buffy over that stupid jerk in that letterman jacket. Ginny Weasley, tiny and graceful, made Dawn feel like a hulking giant. She hadn't really thought about it until she'd heard the stories. The stories of Harry and Ginny and how in love they'd been and how much Harry had adored her and how much she'd adored him right back. It hadn't lasted past Harry's 21st birthday. Their romantic relationship had been over for two years but that wasn't the point.

The point was that Dawn had a humungous sized crush on the Boy Who Lived and she felt gawky and awkward next to the girl who was apparently his type.

"Dawn? Hey Summers, you all right?"

Dawn blinked up at Ginny and nodded jerkily. "Yep. Fine. Peachy keen."

Ginny studied her sceptically. "Uh huh. What did I just say?"

Dawn smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I kinda zoned."

"Something's the matter. What is it?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"Fine is what people say when they're lying. What's wrong?" When Dawn didn't answer, Ginny was forced to guess. "Is it Buffy?" A shake of Dawn's head dismissed the theory. "Spike?" Shake. "Willow? Xander? Giles?" All received shakes. Ginny thought for a moment before gasping. "Dawn Summers, are you having man troubles?"

"Shhh! Keep your voice down."

"You are! Oh, who is it? It's not Ron, is it?" Ginny looked horrified. Dawn looked like she'd been forced to eat a bogey flavoured Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean. "No, not Ron then. Good. Married men are trouble, not to mention my brother's completely gross."

"Don't worry about it, Gin. Really."

"I'm going to find out who it is, Dawn."

A tight lipped smile spread over Dawn's lips, which just made Ginny frustrated. She had thought her and Dawn were getting rather close, considering Dawn hadn't been in England long. What man could be such an effort to hide her feelings for?

"Ginny!" A voice called from downstairs, interrupting Ginny's scrutiny.

Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother. "What?"

"Me and Harry need extra players for Quidditch practice," Ron called, voice lowering as he rounded the frame of Ginny's door. "You up for it?"

"Dawn's here," she said, motioning to the sullen brunette, who waved half-heartedly.

"Brilliant. You two are Beaters. Get your brooms." He disappeared before Ginny could refuse.

"Stupid brother and stupid Harry. I'll get _your_ broom."

Dawn noticed how she didn't badmouth Quidditch. One thing about the Weasleys is they all loved the sport. Even Percy, who couldn't play to save himself, enjoyed watching, though he usually told anyone who would listen he was only there to record it's barbarity.

"Well, come on, Dawn. Ron's spoken. You ready to kick some butt?"

Dawn stretched out her neck and grinned fiercely, glad to have something that would distract her from her dilemma. "Send the Bludgers my way."

The girls grabbed their brooms, Ginny from her closet and Dawn from her bag in the corner, and they met the boys outside. Harry smiled at both of them and Dawn felt herself freeze up. She didn't dare let her eyes rest on him any longer than was strictly necessary when she greeted him and Ron happily. A hand started to go to her hair to make sure it wasn't doing that weird thing were it stuck up awkwardly at the side before she forcefully forced it back down to her side. She smiled stiffly and moved away quickly towards the meadow next to the Burrow where they practiced. She heard Ginny scurry after her.

"I know who it is," the redhead sang in her ear. Dawn barely resisted the urge to punch her friend in the face.

"Shut up, Gin."

"Not that I blame you," Ginny said, continuing on. "He's a fantastic snog. Got the best arse you'll ever see on a bloke."

"Ginny, please."

Ginny stopped in her tracks and Dawn kept walking. The redhead quickly ran after Dawn before she got too far away. "That's your problem, isn't it? You're worried because we had a thing. Seriously Dawn, it's not a problem. Whatever we had is over."

"Ginny, if you don't shut up, I will gladly spill to Ron just who you've been sneaking away to meet whenever he brings one of his friends over to match you with." Ron Weasley would have an apoplectic fit if he knew that Ginny was close to a serious relationship with Draco Malfoy.

"You wouldn't dare," she hissed.

"Oh, but I would unless you shut your mouth about this."

"Fine. You're lucky we're on the same team."

The truth was that Ginny and Dawn worked really well together as Beaters. Almost as well as they did when they played Chasers but if the people who Ron shanghaied to play were who she thought they were, then they already had pretty good Chasers who didn't need the two girls messing up their groove.

Dawn and Ginny drew close enough to make out faces and weren't surprised to see who Ron and Harry had invited. Bill, Charlie and the twins were here, as well as the pregnant Hermione to play referee. Apart from the Weasleys, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Oliver Wood, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were there. Dawn wrinkled her nose. She did not get alon3g well with the Irishman. They butted heads a lot and something nasty was always said, usually about someone's mother, which wasn't a good topic for either of them.

Ron, being the bossy boots that he was, split the teams up as equally as he could. Each team had a different coloured robe, red and blue. Ron decided that on the red team would be himself, Harry, Dawn, Ginny, Katie, Alicia and Angelina. On the other would be Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Oliver, Dean and Seamus.

Hermione had to promise Ron to stay safely away from the Bludgers before he would even mount his broom. It would have been cute if they all hadn't been waiting to play. Hermione waited for everyone to be up in the air and in position before she let the balls free from the battered chest the Weasleys kept around for such occasions.

The game was going fairly smoothly, except for the times the Weasley twins decided that Harry would look good without a head, in which case Dawn felt obliged to disagree and sent the Bludger speeding back their way. Harry kept smiling and waving whenever she managed to divert a Bludger and Dawn couldn't help but hope that the twins kept doing it, just so she could be on the receiving end of Harry's smile again.

The score was extremely close, the leaders switching at least every five minutes. Harry and Charlie had raced each other for the Snitch but a Bludger from Ginny sent them both off course, causing them to lose sight of the Snitch.

It wasn't until Dawn and Ginny were chuckling over the field that things went wrong. Fred hit a Bludger away from Dean and it went speeding straight towards Ginny's head. Dawn saw it first and acted on impulse. She pushed her friend out of its path but didn't get herself out of the way in time. The Bludger hit her stomach straight on, pushing her off her broom and hurtling toward the ground at an alarming speed. Ginny screamed her name and Dawn scrambled to think of something, anything to keep her from going squish when she hit the ground but what little magic she knew had obviously left her somewhere up near the vicinity of where her broom was still hovering in the air.

When the ground was only ten feet away, Dawn squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for impact. The ground never came as something barrelled into her side, flipping Dawn to the ground, her saviour landing on top of her. They rolled and Dawn winced as she felt her arm bend painfully back in an angle that just wasn't meant to be. She heard people calling her name and she found the energy to open her eyes and find out just who was currently crushing the air out of her lungs.

She froze when her eyes met green ones, a green she knew all too well. Harry winced and pushed himself up, giving her room enough to breathe again. "You all right?" He asked, visually checking her over, as if he could X-ray her from the inside out.

"You lost your glasses."

Harry smirked. "Well, at least your brain's still working."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Dawn groaned. She gingerly touched the back of her head, feeling the goose egg that was forming. "I'm going to be sore in the morning."

"That's what she said."

Dawn froze at the images that infiltrated her brain along with that smirk and it wasn't until Ginny landed beside them and pried Harry off of Dawn that she started functioning again. "Dawn, Dawn, are you all right? Merlin, when you fell, I thought for sure that... how're your ribs? Does it hurt to breathe? Dawn?"

"I think I'm going to puke."

Ginny had the foresight to turn her away from everyone else as Dawn emptied the contents of her stomach onto the grass beside her. A distant part of her was annoyed because Molly had made her a wonderful chicken and avocado sandwich, which didn't taste nearly as good coming up is it had going down.

When Dawn stopped heaving, Ginny did a quick Vanishing Spell on the mess. Dawn smiled gently, as her head throbbed and it felt like she'd been caught under a stampede of rabid Hippogryffs. "I guess those Mediwitch skills are coming in handy, eh Gin?"

"Shut up and lie still."

"Did everyone see me ralph?" Dawn whispered, tears in her eyes. Whether it was from the pain or the embarrassment, neither of them were sure.

"No, Harry kept them all away."

"He didn't see, did he?"

"No, he was too busy sending Dean back to the Burrow to Floo St Mungo's."

"Oh Goddess," Dawn moaned. "I don't want to go there."

"Well, too bad, 'cos that's where you're headed." Dawn would have huffed if she hadn't thought it would make her pass out.

Harry came back, shedding his red robe and placing it gently under Dawn's head. "You all right there, Dawn?"

"You found your glasses," she replied slowly.

Harry looked confused. "What is your obsession with my glasses?"

"Your eyes look greener without them." Oh, how she wished she could hit herself.

Ginny just smirked and shooed Harry away as they waited for the Mungo's crew to get here.

* * *

Dawn sat sulking in her hospital bed at St Mungo's, clearly unhappy at her situation. Apart from a few bruised ribs where Harry had plowed into her, a sprained wrist and the bump on the back of her head, she was fine. OK, well, she had a concussion and the mediwizards wouldn't let her go back to the Burrow and rest there. They were worried she'd fall asleep if left to her own devices. Like Ginny would let her.

There was a knock at the door and Harry entered, closing the door gently behind him. "So I hear you have to stay here tonight."

"Just to make sure I don't fall sleep and send myself into a coma."

"You sound so blasé."

"When you've been kidnapped and attacked as many times as I have, you learn not to sweat the little things." Then she remembered who she was talking to. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Got Into As Much Trouble As She Did. "Sorry, forgot who you were for a second."

"That's all right. Can't say it's a bad thing."

Dawn nodded and hesitated, biting her lip. "Thanks, by the way, for catching me. I'm not sure I said it before, due to the loopiness and throwing up and everything."

Harry smiled, like he had when she saved him from the Bludgers. "No problem. I couldn't let you fall, now could I? Ginny would kill me."

Dawn swallowed her disappointment. Of course. He was Ginny's ex boyfriend and still a close friend of the family. Of course he would have done it, just like he would have for Charlie or Fred or George or any of the Weasleys. She should be honoured to be in the category but she just couldn't get past it. He noticed the crestfallen expression and started to panic.

"Dawn? What did I say?"

"Nothing. No, it wasn't you."

"No, I said something wrong. What was it?"

She smiled and patted his hand. "Don't worry about it."

He looked down at her hand on his and then back up at her. "Dawn, if you don't tell me what I did wrong, I'll probably do it again. What did I say?"

"Nothing, it's just... have you ever hoped for something and then had them dashed because you realised you could never measure up?" Harry nodded slowly, still not understanding, which was fine by Dawn. It was fine if he never knew about this stupid crush she had on him. She was 21, for crying out loud. A grown woman in her own right and she was still following around in the shadow of the Chosen One. Funny how some things never changed.

Harry took her hand in both of his and squeezed gently. "I think you forget that I'm a guy and I do some stupid stuff. Sometimes I get myself into trouble or hurt, or I get someone else hurt. And today?" He paused and Dawn felt her heart sink further. "I don't think today was one of them. I mean, I'm really sorry you got banged up, I didn't get the angle quite right, but it could have been worse and I'm glad I got there in time. Dawn, I'm glad you're okay."

There was a pause as Dawn digested his words. "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"I may have a concussion and I still feel a little loopy, but don't say something you don't want to. I mean, just because I'm all hurt and stuff doesn't mean I won't understand what you're saying, though I may think you're talking about something else and I could just be mistranslating 'cos of the bump so-" Dawn blushed when Harry put his finger against her lips, effectively stopping the babble before it could approach full speed.

"Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up." He leaned forward and Dawn thought she was hallucinating but sure enough, Harry's lips touched hers and she felt herself go loopier still. Harry Potter was kissing her.

She pulled back and place a hand on his chest. "Hold on."

"What's wrong?" She looked at him in scrutiny and Harry squirmed a little. "What?"

"I'm just making sure this isn't some sort of joke, or that you're still alive."

"Dawn-"

"No, I'm serious. I've had almost as bad a run as Buffy when it comes to guys. When I was fifteen, I was going to become a demon's child bride. The first guy I kissed was a vampire. I made a fool out of myself in front of half the school because a guy was wearing an enchanted jacket. Buffy sent me to finish my schooling at an all girl's school and I still got into trouble."

"Dawn, you're not helping."

"I don't mean to, but come on, Harry. Look at you. You're this amazingly kind and generous person and my history's telling me that something has to go wrong."

"Well, I've always been rubbish at history." He moved her hand and kissed her again, and this time Dawn let him.


End file.
